Why
Early marriage, domestic or family work, and taboos surrounding menstruation all prevent adolescent girls from going to and staying in school for long enough to get the consistent, quality education they need to improve life chances.

How

• Direct coaching and support for girls from peer mentor ‘big sisters’ – buddy system
• Community mobilization from ‘adult champions’ to engage families and raise awareness of the value of girls’ education
• Volunteer support and training at 48 schools (make sure girls aren’t ignored in class, supporting schools to come up with plans to create a better environment for girls) and at government level to make education more inclusive for girls across Nepal.

• Almost all of the 1,280 little sisters recruited into the project are still in school, with 70% saying mentoring motivates them to stay in school
• 60 out-of-school girls have been re-enrolled in schools
• 100% of the 144 teachers trained by volunteers showed greater gender sensitivity in their teaching
• 100% of school improvement plans completed following training so far have addressed gender equality measures including gender-sensitive classroom arrangements and improvements to bathrooms
• The Nepal Government Ministry for Education has launched a new Equity Strategy to improve girls’ education and drafted a plan for implementation
• 731 girls who are out-of-school or behind have received learning support classes to catch up on crucial education. In Parsa district, the exam pass rate for girls who ttended the classes increased from 23% to 91% in the space of just three months
• 9000+ textbooks and 22,000+ stationery kits have been supplied to students

“I am very happy with the project because our daughters are very motivated to go to school regularly.  This has helped my child improve her grades.  She is now more confident and can communicate better with people, especially elders.”
– Parent of Little Sister, Surkhet